Hungary has been member of Europe’s most powerful synchrotron light source, the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble (ESRF, http://www.esrf.eu/) since 2000. The research infrastructure serving, in the first line, material structure and analytical studies is being used by about 20 groups from Hungarian universities and research institutes mainly in the field of engineering and physical sciences as well as life sciences. The annual membership fee of Hungary to ESRF is 245 thousand euros for which, however, presently no funding body can be identified. This practically…

Writing that has lain undiscovered for centuries inside a scroll that was charred in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD has been uncovered for the first time. The text, which was written inside a so called ‘papyrus roll’ that was found in the only surviving ancient library, discovered in Herculaneum 260 years ago, has been examined using X-rays at the European Synchrotron, the ESRF. The result, by a team from the Italian CNR, the ESRF, Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität, and the CNRS, was published in Nature Communications (20 January 2015). It offers new possibilities for deciphering hundreds of so far untouched texts, without the damage that can be caused by trying to open them.